Is YouTube making us smarter (Mike)? Although today YouTube becomes more and more popular, people still doubt whether it is useful for education. Recently, Mike Rugnetta talks about this issue in his “idea channel”. He is a composer, programmer and performer in Brooklyn, NY (NPR). In his video, he gives lots of reasons to prove that YouTube can make its users smarter. It is an amazing resource which includes any kinds of issues and updates every day. No matter where you are, you can watch videos from famous professors on YouTube. Even for some difficult and long-standing problems, YouTube gives us an easier chance to access them. What’s more, YouTube creators transform education in variety of amazing and engaging ways (Mike). It not only helps the users develop their studying ability, but also helps teachers avoid systemic working.

Mike’s video focuses on young people who watch YouTube every day. Maybe some of them are looking for educational videos, but the majority of YouTube users watch it just for fun. Thus, Mike persuades people to start learning something from YouTube and shows them how. In his video, he uses numbers, images, videos, cartoons, graphs, and experts’ quotations to prove that YouTube does help its users learn.

  About his argument, I think the most persuasive reason is that YouTube involves lots of college classes. Mike shows a few videos for this part, and he compares YouTube with real classes from famous universities, which shows that YouTube can teach us learn science and history easier. By giving videos and images, the audience can get his point directly, especially when watching such a fast-paced video. Besides, when he compares YouTube with famous colleges, images and videos help us find the differences quicker and clearer. Videos and images both are very effective tools because they can simplify complex things. Sometimes funny videos and images can even make the argument impressive.  

Personally, I have used YouTube often since I came to the United States. YouTube is blocked in China, and we do not have a similar website. In China, college instructors seldom have time to help students after class, which means we have to handle lots of difficult problems by ourselves. Normally, we check online or in the library to see whether there are similar materials. If there is, that is fine. However, in most cases, all of what we find is some abstract definitions and theorems, which do not make any sense to us.

Things are different here. A week before midterm exams, I was stuck in my math class about the reduction of matrices. I checked some related chapters on the website, but I couldn't understand many key sentences because of numerous new words. Then I gave it a shot on YouTube, and fortunately I found something useful. It was a 5-minutes video about reducing matrices, from Rice University. Compared with books and lectures, videos are more direct, and I can figure out the relationships between each step. Finally, I finished my assignment with that video, although it cost me three or four hours.

So, obviously we can learn something on YouTube, but many of us don’t realize this. Actually, everything in this world can teach us a lesson, no matter what it is. Think about an extremely boring video, no plot, plain and with a robotic performer, even such a video can help international students improve their English skills. So, to start a different studying experience, you have to find videos that suit you. If they do not exist, that means you have a chance to make this kind of video yourself. Next time, when you watching NBA stories or the YouTube Music Awards, do not forget YouTube is also an amazing tool which may color your study, as well as your life. 

Rugnetta, Mike. "Is YouTube Making Us Smarter?" Idea Channel. 7 Nov 2012. Web. 25 Oct 2013. 
     Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qjge9U_MiA
NPR. "Mike Rugnetta: Ask Meme Another." NPR News. 11 Apr 2013. Web. 25 Oct 2013. 
     Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/2013/04/12/176829194/ask-meme-another